There’s a gazillion blogs about what you should be doing on social media to get genuine results and these are all valuable in their own way. This blog, however, is about what’s realistic for most businesses and I’ll be focusing on small and medium-sized businesses.
After working as a social media consultant for 4 years now, I’ve seen a trend in working with businesses. It all boils down to this simple fact.
To be successful in social media you have to be all in.
In fact, you’re better off being all out, than having your toe dipped in the water. A Facebook page that isn’t consistently active will do more damage than good. If a customer leaves a message on your page that you don’t respond to, this is poor customer service. The same goes for any digital platform.
So what do I mean by all in? I mean that you’ve made a top-level decision to invest in social media to produce meaningful results. All in requires a thought-out strategy and a plan to action it. This next step is also key:
You must have some content input yourself
You cannot leave this job entirely up to a consultant such as myself, or indeed one team member within your organisation. This needs to be a coordinated group effort to produce regular local material.
How does a social media consultant help?
What the social media consultant can do, is gives you ideas, guidance and training on what and how to provide the content. They can do the distributing of the content and they can also support you with other content to keep the consistency up. You don’t need to do all the content yourself, but a social media presence without in-house live material won’t feel authentic, and ultimately won’t grow an engaged fan-base.
Why does it need to be a group? Because coming up with fresh content day after day is a tiring process. Over time this will certainly become stale without a little inspiration from a team. After all, it’s the team that your customers want to get to know, not just you. Your customers want to see the breadth of offerings behind the scenes as well as up front.
The social media consultant is a powerful member of your team. They will keep you abreast of the latest trends, and how to implement them in a professional way. They also add another creative mind to your mix with a specialist eye for shareable content.
But don’t be fooled by the ease of it. Social media that matters i.e. social media that is worth doing because it generates results, needs a level of commitment from within as well as some guidance from a social media specialist. This could be a regular review or training, or a more hands on approach for creating, posting and advertising content.
A social media consultant will have an intimate knowledge of your business so they can be a professional representative. It takes time to educate them on what you’re up to, just as they are educating you on effective ways to get the best results. All of the teams I have worked with have been very rewarding. The best results come from those that take it on as a collaborative effort.
What’s realistic for most small businesses?
Marketing is commonly the last on the list for small businesses. I’m not saying that’s where it should be, but honestly that’s the reality.
So what are the things that you, as a small business can commit to do every week for your social media? Assuming you have a social media consultant, all you have to do is take a couple of pictures and text them or email them to the consultant. The consultant can fix up the quality, add the context and distribute for you.
Now that video is on the table to stay, it’s advisable that you pick at least one time a week (for starters) for you to get behind the camera and say a little something. This can be scripted for you initially so you get the idea.
TIP: I find using Snapchat a really great way to get used to video. It’s short and simple and doesn’t have the pressures of a large audience until you decide to tell people that you’re there.
As you get used to the process you can start to introduce more targeted strategies. But even providing a few photos and a video can take a bit of getting used to if you’re not used to doing it.
This obviously isn’t enough for a full week’s editorial, but that can be filled in by your consultant with more generic graphics and messaging that doesn’t require anything other than proofing from you.
So as a small business with lots of time pressure, if you can just make time to provide a few pics and a video, you’ve got enough to get started with a little help. This is a realistic and achievable goal.
What’s realistic for medium-sized businesses?
When you’re a larger sized business you have more staff at your disposal. You might even be a marketing manager with a small team, and now you’ve really got something to work with. If you’re a marketing person working on your own, then you need to mobilise people around you to help out with creating content for variety.
TIP: When you’re asking for contributions from team members, be specific about what you want from them, rather than just saying, ‘give me some content’.
When you’re using a social media consultant, they’re likely to work on a campaign-style basis and assist you with the overall strategy. It might be assistance with a particular key campaign, or a specific element to ease your load such as advertising. Even if you’re a trained and seasoned marketer, having a support team to go to for ideas is really powerful. Creativity is tough on your own, and creativity is necessary to get great results.
Some people I work with, we only proof-read and review their editorial calendar and offer suggestions for improvement on a regular basis.
Summary
I think it’s important to be realistic about what you can honestly give to your social media content before determining your strategy. Some people love it and really get on board, but there are others who really aren’t into social media and would rather leave to whole lot to someone else. Be honest about where you fit in sliding scale and design your strategy, and your support, around it.
